Patrol

Drunk Driver Sentenced for New York Officer’s Death in Accident He Wasn’t Involved In

A Long Island, NY, man was sentenced to up to 12 years in prison Wednesday for the 2012 DWI-related death of a Nassau County police officer—even though he wasn’t driving the car that killed the officer.

Officer Joseph Olivieri was responding to two crashes caused by James Ryan’s drunken driving, jurors found in January, when another driver slammed into Ryan’s car on the Long Island Expressway and then fatally struck Olivieri.

Under sentencing guidelines, Ryan will serve a minimum of five years. The 29-year-old had faced up to 20 years in prison on the 10 counts on which he was convicted, the New York Post reports.

The case was closely watched by legal experts, who said it was rare for someone other than the driver to be charged in a crash. The charges were based on the legal principle of “causation/foreseeability,” in which suspects are charged in events that are foreseeable results of their actions.

Ryan’s attorney said Wednesday he was filing notice to appeal the conviction and would request the sentence be stayed. Called to the scene, Olivieri was outside his patrol car talking with Ryan when an SUV smashed into the Toyota and then fatally struck the officer. Prosecutors said Ryan’s blood-alcohol level was 0.13, far higher than the state’s threshold of .08.

Scanner audio captured an officer’s account of what happened at the scene, CWBChicago reports: “Ten people surrounded me, indicating that they had firearms. And one person pulled him away from me, holding his waist, indicating that he would use a firearm against me.”

There were so many police officers, sheriff’s deputies and Highway Patrol troopers that the court appearance had to be moved out of Justice Court to Judge John Larson’s Courtroom Number Three on the third floor of the Missoula County Courthouse.

The vehicle pursuit ended in the town of Kittitas where Deputy Thompson was backed up by Officer Benito Chavez. The suspect exited the vehicle and exchanged shots with the two law enforcement officers.